Sir John Richardson FRS FRSE (5 November 1787 – 5 June 1865) was a Scottish

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

, naturalist and

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Life

Richardson was born at Nith Place in Dumfries the son of Gabriel Richardson, Provost of Dumfries, and his wife, Anne Mundell. He was educated at Dumfries Grammar School. He was then apprenticed to his maternal uncle, Dr James Mundell, a surgeon in Dumfries. He studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

, and became a surgeon in the navy in 1807. He traveled with

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through t ...

in search of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

on the

Coppermine Expedition of 1819–1822 The Coppermine expedition of 1819–1822 was a British overland undertaking to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada, eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. The expedition was organised by the Royal Nav ...

. Richardson wrote the sections on

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and ichthyology for the official account of the expedition. Franklin and Richardson returned to Canada in 1825 and went overland by fur trade routes to the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Franklin was to go as far west as possible and Richardson was to go east to the mouth of the Coppermine River. These were the only known points on the central coast and had been reached in 1793 and 1771 respectively. He had with him two specially-built boats which were more ocean-worthy than the voyageur canoes used by Franklin on his previous expedition. They gave their names to the Dolphin and Union Strait near the end of his route. His journey was successful and he reached his furthest east the same day that Franklin reached his furthest west (16 August 1826). He abandoned his boats at

Bloody Falls Bloody Falls (or Bloody Fall, or Kogluktok, meaning "it flows rapidly" or "spurts like a cut artery" in Inuktitut) is a waterfall on the Coppermine River, in the Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park of Nunavut, Canada. It was the site of the Blo ...

and trekked overland to Fort Franklin which he reached three weeks before Franklin. Together they had surveyed 1,878 miles of previously unmapped coast. The natural history discoveries of this expedition were so great that they had to be recorded in two separate works, the ''Flora Boreali-Americana'' (1833–40), written by William Jackson Hooker, and the ''Fauna Boreali-Americana'' (1829–37), written by Richardson, William John Swainson,

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

and William Kirby. At the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in 1842, Richardson described the diving apparatus and treatment of diver Roderick Cameron following an injury that occurred on 14 October 1841 during the salvage operations on . Richardson was knighted by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

in 1846. He traveled with John Rae on an unsuccessful search for Franklin in 1848–49, describing it in ''An Arctic Searching Expedition'' (1851). He retired to the Lake District in 1855. He died at his home Lancrigg House north of Grasmere on 5 June 1865, and is buried at St Oswald's Church, Grasmere.

Family

He married three times: firstly in 1818 to Mary Stiven; secondly in 1833 to Mary Booth; and finally in 1847 to Mary Fletcher.

Works

He also wrote accounts dealing with the natural history, and especially the ichthyology, of several other Arctic voyages, and was the author of ''Icones Piscium'' (1843), ''Catalogue of Apodal Fish in the British Museum'' (1856), the second edition of Yarrell's ''History of British Fishes'' (1860), ''The Polar Regions'' (1861). and ''Arctic Ordeal: The Journal of John Richardson'' Edited by C. Stuart Houston (1984). The National Marine Biological Library at the Marine Biological Association retains some original illustrations used by Richardson in preparation for the second edition of Yarrell's book.

Eponyms

Richardson is commemorated in the

scientific names In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of four

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of reptiles: '' Eremiascincus richardsonii, Hemidactylus richardsonii, Myron richardsonii'', and '' Sphaerodactylus richardsonii''. The mammal species '' Mustela richardsonii'', '' Urocitellus richardsonii'', and '' Dicrostonyx richardsoni'' are also named for him.

References

External links